Abstract
BackgroundFew studies have investigated how demographic, clinical and organizational characteristics influence parents' experiences with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The objective of this study was to determine the effects of these characteristics on parents' experiences using data from a large national postal survey.MethodA questionnaire was mailed to 17,871 parents or other primary caregivers whose children were attending 1 of the 86 outpatient CAMHS in Norway in 2006. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the associations between demographic, clinical and organizational characteristics, and three scales of parents' experiences.ResultsThe questionnaire was completed by 7906 parents (46%). Organizational characteristics such as involvement of the parents in treatment and accessibility to the clinic explained most of the variation in all three scales of parents' experiences. Although the effects of demographic and clinical characteristics of the children in some instances were statistically significant, they only accounted for a small amount of the total explained variance.ConclusionAccessibility to the clinic and involvement of the parents in treatment are much stronger predictors of parental experiences with outpatient CAMHS than are demographic and clinical variables. Accessibility and involvement are at least partly influenced by the clinics themselves, and hence parental satisfaction may be enhanced by making the clinics more accessible and by involving the parents/caregivers in the treatment.
Highlights
Few studies have investigated how demographic, clinical and organizational characteristics influence parents’ experiences with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)
The questionnaire was completed by 7906 parents (46%). Organizational characteristics such as involvement of the parents in treatment and accessibility to the clinic explained most of the variation in all three scales of parents’ experiences
The effects of demographic and clinical characteristics of the children in some instances were statistically significant, they only accounted for a small amount of the total explained variance
Summary
Few studies have investigated how demographic, clinical and organizational characteristics influence parents’ experiences with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Few studies have investigated the associations between background variables and parents’ reported experiences with CAMHS [2,3]. Some studies have found no relationship between demographic variables and parental satisfaction [4,6], while others have identified some statistically significant relationships. Several studies found no statistically significant association between satisfaction and ethnic background [4,7,12,13,14], while Heflinger et al [10] found that parents of black children were more satisfied with one aspect of the treatment
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